Abstract
The present study employs corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the attitudes of Jordanian news towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The corpus of the research, which consists of 10140 articles (Word types: 103170 and Word tokens: 1956589), were taken from the Petra news agency between 2016 and 2018. Antconc Tools Version 3.4.4w was used to analyze the data. The study used corpus statistical tools of collocates and concordance. Collocates tool used to create a list of 200 collocates associated with the words: /lad3iʔ/ ‘refugee’, /lad3iʔi:n/ ‘refugees’, /su:ri:/ ‘Syrian’, and /su:ryi:n/ ‘Syrians’. These collocates were organized into two thematic categories: ‘services and resources’ and ‘Jordanians and Syrians’. The study used a concordance tool to unveil the attitudes of newspapers towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The findings of the study showed that Jordanians see Syrians as “brothers” and “guests”. However, Jordanian newspapers overstated the negative effect of Syrian refugees on the Jordanian economy, education, healthcare, etc. Jordanians were frustrated because Syrians compete with them on their resources and governmental services.
Highlights
1.1 BackgroundWhen the conflict started in Syria in 2011, Jordan has suffered from the negative impact of a massive influx of Syrian refugees
Jordanian newspapers overstated the negative effect of Syrian refugees on the Jordanian economy, education, healthcare, etc
Collocates of Jordanians and Syrians. As it is clear from the concordance line above, the word “ ”الأشقاءalʔʃiqaʔ ‘brothers’ collocates with “”السوريين alsuryun ‘Syrians’ which suggests that despite the negative impact of Syrian refugee crisis on Jordan; Jordanians viewed Syrians as their brothers
Summary
When the conflict started in Syria in 2011, Jordan has suffered from the negative impact of a massive influx of Syrian refugees. According to UNHCR, Jordan hosts more than 1.6 million Syrians, of whom around 700,000 registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. More than eighty percent of these Syrians live in Jordanian cities and villages, especially in the northern district, as opposed to refugee camps. UNHCR reveals that 29% of registered Syrian refugees live in the capital Amman, 25% in Mafraq (a city in north Jordan), and 21% in Ibid (a city in North Jordan). Syrian refugees constitute more than 10 percent of Jordan’s population, which has influenced the social, political, and economic situation in Jordan. It is not a secret that Syrian refugees compete with Jordanians for their employment opportunities, healthcare, shelter, education, and scarce resources
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